


Kairosclerosis

by Anxiety_Pickle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Humor, M/M, Sort Of, Teenage Melodrama, Unresolved Sexual Tension, itachi is overprotective, naruto gets hit with a kekkei genkai that transports him to an alternate universe, slight introspection, these boys are so dumb, this started out as crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:27:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24325774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxiety_Pickle/pseuds/Anxiety_Pickle
Summary: A run of the mill C-rank mission gone horribly wrong leaves Naruto stranded in an different world filled with familiar faces. In this world, Sasuke never left, the Uchiha clan was never destroyed, and Naruto finds that the longer he stays, the less he wants to leave.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 18
Kudos: 263
Collections: Sasunaru fics to live for





	Kairosclerosis

**Author's Note:**

> I remembered the Road to Ninja movie is a thing that exists and felt the need to write. This started off as crack but I can't write crack so it quickly devolved into angst territory. I wrote this in like one sitting and it's a purely indulgent representation of Naruto realizing he likes Sasuke lmao.

Naruto’s day has… not been going spectacularly, in his objective opinion. And for once, he isn’t being dramatic about it, even though he stands by his declaration that dropping his ice cream cone _did_ actually warrant that funeral speech, thank you very much, Jiraiya. He’s not exactly sure how it happened because he really only started paying attention when their courier mission spontaneously evolved into a _don’t be killed by the bandits mission_ , and now he is in possession of the scroll he’s supposed to be ferrying to their client, he lost the rest of his team somewhere in the dark, swampy jigsaw of humid forest behind him, and he’s fairly sure he’s surrounded right now.

But it’s fine. No, really, he’s _positive_ he can get out of this situation relatively unharmed. 

Well, he can _probably_ get out of this situation. 

He’s fifty percent sure, at least. 

Unfortunately, his shadow clones can only divert their attention for so long. He leaps from one thick, gnarled branch to another, shadowy forms flanking him on both sides. He feels one of his shadow clones dissolve to a kunai.

Well, this has progressed from a slight inconvenience to a problem. He readies his rasengan and wonders what could possibly be in this dumb scroll that’s so important, whirling around as he feels a presence flicker behind him, swinging forward, when knuckles graze his back.

All of the breath leaves him, like all those times he was practicing tree climbing and fell, knocking the wind from him, and he stumbles back, losing traction on the tree. He doesn’t even feel it when he hits the ground, his vision swimming in front of him as the shapes move, one of them prying his hand open and taking the scroll. One of them kneels, close enough that they’re almost nose to nose, and only at this distance can Naruto make out any of their features with his failing vision and the feeling of disconnect in his head. Their eyes are outlined with silver, and he sees double for a moment, before they drop him back into the grass unceremoniously, and then, between blinks, they’re gone. 

There’s static in his fingers and an unrelenting pain gnawing at the back of his skull, as if he were concussed, a numbness travelling down his legs, and then he loses his grasp on consciousness.

Naruto wakes to someone shaking his shoulder.

“Naruto. Hey, loser.”

The voice is achingly familiar, in a raw sort of way, but he can’t quite make out who it is. In the distance, ambient music plays, just a note odd of recognizable. He has the tune at the tip of his tongue, but just when he thinks he grasps the melody, the score hits an accidental and sends him spiralling again. There’s something hard and stiff beneath his back, nothing like the gross, wet undergrowth of the forest where he fell, he has to be covered in mud and algae and whatever the hell kind of nasty bugs are swimming in the tepid, stagnant pools of water, and-

 _The scroll_!

He sits up so fast his head spins, his vision cutting out for a second. He registers a hand on his shoulder.

“Woah, there. You good?”

He blinks back into awareness, turning his stiff neck and back sideways to see-

 _Sasuke_?

He’s crouched next to him, a hand on his shoulder, watching him expectantly.

“S- _Sasuke_?” He sputters, his head spinning.

No, no, this can’t be real. This has to be a hallucination, or a genjutsu - maybe that had been what that guy had been doing. 

Sasuke arches an eyebrow. “The one and only.”

This can’t be happening. Naruto squeezes his eyes shut, and opens them again. 

No use. This is _real_ , then. Oh, god. Oh no. Where is he? What’s going on?

“Did you hit your head or something?” Sasuke pokes at his head, and Naruto is suddenly very aware of how close he is, pressed against his side looking for a nonexistent head injury. “Do I need to take you to Tsunade? If you get another concussion she’s gonna put you on the bench.”

“I - Sasuke, what? When did you - how are you-?”

He’s in the village. He recognizes this alley, the line of shops, the high, austere angles of the buildings. A flag whips in the wind - a brand he doesn’t recognize, a bold red print stamped onto the white fabric rolling like waves. A few passersby spare them odd looks, but for the most part, they’re unquestioned. Even though Naruto is supposed to be on a mission. Even though Sasuke deserted the village three years ago, even though-

“You _sure_ you’re okay?” He pulls back, and Naruto resists the urge to reach out, remembering to be wary at the last moment. For all he knows this is just a manifestation of whatever that guy had done to him - a kekkei genkai, maybe? That would be bad, if it were the case. “Here, how many fingers am I holding up?”

“I - two - how are you here?”

He tilts his head curiously, the same way he used to do when he saw a new jutsu that caught interest or anything else that intrigued him. No, that’s _definitely_ Sasuke, no doubt about it. The same startlingly dark eyes to match the equally dark hair that seems to define the Uchiha as a whole. Same high cheekbones and delicate bone structure. But the way he’s holding himself is entirely different. His posture is completely open and relaxed, not perpetually on guard. And he’s staring at him as if _he’s_ the one acting strangely.

“We were walking downtown and you passed out, don’t you remember? Maybe I _should_ take you to Tsunade…”

“No!” Naruto yelps. “No! Not necessary! I’m… perfectly fine, see?” He jumps to his feet, groaning when he pulls a muscle in his back, but the ache is gone as quickly as it appears. “All good!”

“... then why did you pass out?”

“Um.... dehydration?”

Sasuke doesn’t look like he believes that in the slightest, and - _Sasuke_! Naruto still hasn’t wrapped his mind around that, yet, that Sasuke is _right in front of him_ , right within arm’s reach, closer than he has been in three long years, as if nothing ever happened at all and Naruto’s starting to think that maybe it didn’t, maybe that was all some grand fabrication of his mind; logic can’t quite get its teeth around this situation yet.

The street is familiar. The lanterns overhead burn with light that seems just a tad more amber than normal, just a shade darker, and something about the arrangement of streets is just off enough that makes him think that this isn’t _really_ Konoha, or if it is, a version of it he doesn’t belong to. 

Sasuke grabs his wrist and Naruto kind of wants to pass out again.

“What?” He asks, the corner of his mouth quirking up coyly. “Getting another dizzy spell?”

Naruto’s mouth is dry. “I - uh, where are we going?”

“To get water? Weren’t you listening?”

His Sasuke was _never_ this touchy-feely. Naruto doesn’t think he minded his constant contact, but he definitely didn’t initiate it like this, and definitely not with this much ease.

_What is going on?_

“Uh, yeah, right.”

They end up sitting down in the closest shop they can find, and Naruto stares at the sign, trying to discern whether or not it has any correlation to the real shop that’s usually in this area. He can’t find any, and it makes him anxious. _How do I get back? What happened to everyone else?_

Sasuke sets a glass of water on the table, snapping Naruto from his thoughts. He mumbles his thanks into the rim, drumming his fingers nervously on the table.

“I’m really feeling better.” Naruto says.

“I’m sure you are.” He replies, and he looks so much like his Sasuke, but it seems more like someone wearing a henge with his face, but at the same time Naruto knows that it is Sasuke, some version of him, and Naruto doesn’t know where he came from or why he’s here. “Better enough to go back to the festival?”

The festival. What festival? Naruto probably shouldn’t voice his questions or he’ll be alerting Sasuke that he definitely isn’t okay, and he doesn’t need to alert anyone to the fact that he doesn’t belong here. Clearly, they recognize him, so he just needs to… act like he recognizes them, too. That should work until he figures out a way to get home.

“Yeah, yeah, the festival…. That. Let’s do that.”

“...right.” Sasuke says, and slips the money over the counter. As they pass back through the door, they’re interrupted by Team 10 - or, what Naruto assumes is Team 10, because this has to be the weirdest shit he’s ever seen. Shikamaru is unfocused and dishevelled, Choji’s hair is short and his clothing is entirely different, and Ino is perhaps the biggest change he’s seen yet. Ino has one half of her hair shaved, a bright blue piercing in her ear and septum, arms crossed over her chest and one hip cocked, staring Sasuke coolly down.

“Ino,” Sasuke greets jovially. She snarls wordlessly at her while Shikamaru tries desperately to mediate the situation, looking on the verge of tears while Choji watches with cool indifference. 

“Uchiha.” She says, chin jutted forward. 

Sasuke plants his hands on Naruto’s shoulders and steers him out of there.

“What’s her problem?” He scowls, miffed.

“Ahh,” He starts, “I might have slept with her girlfriend.”

Naruto chokes on his own spit. “You _what_?”

“I didn’t know she was dating her and she sure as hell didn’t tell me. I tried to talk to her after but you know how Ino holds a grudge.”

Naruto really, _really_ doesn’t. He’s still a little caught up on the whole ‘sleeping with people’ thing. 

“I told you about this.” He raises an eyebrow, once again glancing at his head.

“I - uh - yeah, I knew that!” Naruto sputters. “Of course I knew that. I just meant that… maybe she got angry at you for a different reason? Because you… know how Ino can hold a grudge?” His laugh sounds fake to his own ears. No wonder Kakashi won’t let him go on subterfuge missions. 

Sasuke doesn’t look like he buys that completely, but acquiseses pretty easily. 

The streets are strung up with lights and banners, little vendor shops lining the streets. Someone is selling firecrackers that pop and sizzle, bright against the stunning backdrop of dusk. The stars look close enough to fish out of the sky, like he could fit nebulae between his fingers if he lifted his palm up, and that’s perhaps the first sign that this world isn’t really his. 

But Sasuke is _here_. And, he hasn’t seen him in _so long_ , and he doesn’t really know how to get back, so-

He lets himself get dragged through the maze of streets, familiar but not. People smile and grin and wave as they pass, and Sasuke smiles charmingly, smile bright, teeth straight and perfect. Sasuke slows his pace a bit as they turn the corner, and stares down at a pool of cold water, swimming with little koi fish, scales splotches of black and orange and white. He drops his hold on Naruto’s wrist, watching them spin in lazy circles, whiskers twitching. 

And Naruto can’t _help_ it. It isn’t fair that Sasuke is here now and it isn’t _his_ Sasuke. He’s _right here_. He stands next to him, and glances at the ring toss game. Get three on the pegs and you get a fish.

“Do you want one?” He blurts before he can stop himself. 

“Oh?” He asks, and Naruto can hear the grin in his voice and can’t do anything about the blood rush to his head. This is probably a hallucination anyways, right? So it doesn’t really matter what he does, because he’ll wake up at some point and be back in the real world, and it should be fine if he just stays for now, right? There’s always time to look for a way out later, because he doesn’t really have any leads right now and the scroll is long gone by now. He’s not doing any harm. “I didn’t think you had a romantic bone in your body.”

“Well, I’m gonna win in for you!” Naruto declares, falling comfortably back on old habits, and smiles brightly as Sasuke smiles back.

“That game is _rigged_.” Naruto sulks. “I totally would’ve won if it wasn’t a _hack_.”

“That so?” Sasuke grins, holding both a bag with a fish in it (that Naruto is sure was procured illegally), and an insufferably purple teddy bear in the other. 

“You have the Sharingan!” He protests. “You only won because you’re a cheater, too!”

Sasuke pretends to consider this for a moment. “It’s not cheating if you don’t get caught.”

“It is too.” He glares at the stupid smiling face of the teddy bear. “Why do you even want that thing?”

“I don’t.” He tells him. “The look on your face was just funny.”

Naruto squawks indignantly.

“Hey, Hinata!” Sasuke calls. Hinata - with her hair done in an extravagant braid and a sneer on her face - turns his way, and shoves a middle finger his way. “You want this?”

She opens her arms and he tosses the hideous thing at her. 

“Thanks, dickhead!” She bumps her shoulder with his. Naruto wonders if she’s cold in that open jacket. 

“Try not to bite anyone’s head off.”

“Try not to fall in bed with any more strangers.” She bites back.

“Your expectations are too high,” He presses a hand to his chest. “I don’t think I can meet him.”

She rolls her eyes and gives Naruto a onceover that has her lip curling in disgust before she whirls around and struts back down the street, taking her place between Kiba and Shino, who’s missing his signature trench coat entirely. And… is that a cat that Kiba has?

“What the fuck was that?”

Sasuke eyes him. “You’re sure you’re alright? Tsunade won’t get mad if you’re actually injured.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” He says hurriedly. “Let’s go somewhere else, though, I saw that shopkeeper eyeing us.”

“Yeah,” Sasuke agrees. “No one’s supposed to win his game. He definitely knows we cheated.”

“So you _admit_ it.”

“You have no proof.”

They duck into a mostly empty store that Naruto notices belatedly is Ichiraku, just much bigger, much better furnished, and much better staffed. He has to wait a moment before his head catches up with the rest of them and notices a group of people huddled at another table, passing around alcohol.

A group that looks _strikingly_ Uchiha, the Uchiha clan which was wiped out, which Sasuke is the only survivor of. And, perhaps most startling at all, is Itachi. Naruto freezes, all the air leaving his lungs as he tenses, adrenaline pounding through him, remembering the way he and his partner had infiltrated Fire country and the way his fingers had clamped around Sasuke’s throat-

“Sasuke!” One of them, with spiky dark brown hair, calls, his words just a bit slurred, blending into one another at the edges. “Care to join us?”

Was the Uchiha clan… still alive?

“Don’t give him alcohol.” Itachi rolls his eyes, taking the cup away from him. 

“Oh come on, you’re _such_ a wet towel.” He whines, face down on the table. “He’s a jonin! He can have a drink if he wants.”

“Shisui,” Itachi says flatly. “ _You_ can’t even handle alcohol. You’re a bad influence.”

He mutters something unintelligible into the table and Sasuke rolls his eyes.

“Hi, Sasuke.” He greets warmly. His eyes flick to Naruto. Significantly colder, he adds, “... hello, Naruto.”

Itachi is… a Konoha Shinobi? He squints at Sasuke, waiting for him to reveal this is all some elaborate cosmic joke and he’s the punchline. So, Itachi never killed his clan, so the clan is still alive, and Itachi is still a Konoha Shinobi…?

“Hi?” He squeaks, when Sasuke elbows him in the side.

They’re ushered to a table, and Naruto leans over the table. He just has to roll with this. He can do that. “... why’s I-... why’s your brother staring at me like that?”

Sasuke swirls his drink contemplatively. “He thinks we’re dating.”

Naruto short circuits, just a little. “Oh.” He says, quite intelligently. “... are we? I mean. Dating.”

Sasuke grins around his straw. “You tell me.”

Naruto can _feel_ Itachi’s eyes boring into his back. He twitches, and says, very quietly: “... I think your brother might try to set me on fire depending on my answer.”

“He might.” Sasuke agrees. Naruto would find that _greatly_ threatening if he could focus on anything other than the pink line of Sasuke’s mouth. “He might just set you on fire for the fun of it, too. He doesn’t like you much.”

“ _Why_?”

“You have a bit of a history as a delinquent.” He says flatly, and his tone is so much like the one he knows that for a moment Naruto almost forgets that he’s not the one he knows. 

“I don’t think that warrants burning me to a crisp…” He mumbles, offended, and glances back over his shoulder. 

“Don’t look him directly in the eyes.” Sasuke says. “He can smell fear.”

Sasuke laughs at his grimace, before he leans further over the table, leaning over his arms a little, lowering his voice. “He’s gonna hate that he doesn’t know what we’re saying right now.”

His face is very close to Naruto’s face. _Very_ close. 

He’s busy laughing at what he’s sure is Itachi’s _murderous_ expression, and doesn’t seem to notice that Naruto is having a heart attack until he leans back. His brows furrow - and Naruto knows that expression, has puzzled it out in the back of his mind on the long nights after Sasuke had gone and the only thing left of him had been his memories. He had made that expression when he was thinking hard. He had made it when they learned tree climbing, and it had come dangerously close to a pout on his younger face. 

“What?” Naruto edges back a little for fear that Sasuke will realize that he is not, in fact, this world’s Naruto. That would probably be bad and might break the multiverse too, and Naruto doesn’t want to single handedly break the multiverse. 

“I told you I’m _fine_.” He says quickly. “I think maybe I should just… go home. Get some sleep.” _Wake up from this nightmare_. It occurs to him a second too late that he doesn’t actually know where, precisely, he lives. Based on the rest of the place, his house might very well not be in the same place, in which case, this will make for a very uncomfortable night. 

“What is it?”

Naruto needs to think of something quickly. Sasuke should know where his house is, right?

“Do you want to… walk back with me?”

He raises an eyebrow. “You want me to walk you home?” He asks in a tone that makes Naruto feel kinda stupid, in true Sasuke fashion, and is about to renounce the suggestion before he plows on with an easy, “Sure.” He slides off his chair and up, limber and graceful as a lazy cat. 

“We’re going,” He calls to his brother. “See you at home, ‘Tachi.”

“You too.” He calls warmly, and fixes Naruto in his best murder glare he can without actually resorting to the Sharingan. Naruto would like to say that with or without it, it’s very effective, he’s feeling very threatened. 

Sasuke grabs him by the elbow and herds him out. “Don’t worry about him.” He says. “He’s a little… overprotective.”

“A little?” He glances over his shoulder. It’s almost like he can still feel the murderous intent. 

“He’s not that bad.” Sasuke laughs. “I got into a bad spot a couple of years back and he’s been like this ever since.”

Well, Naruto can understand that, at least.

The walk back to his apartment - what he _hopes_ is his apartment - is mostly quiet, Sasuke guiding him (albeit he doesn’t know that). At one point, their knuckles brush. Naruto glances at him out of the corner of his eye and finds Sasuke is looking back, and he intertwines their fingers together. Naruto imagines, for a moment, that this is real and not some fucked up hallucination or something, and it’s not hard, considering he _looks_ the same. There are pieces of him that Naruto recognizes; the sardonic hint to his smile, the cold fire behind his eyes. Same dark hair framing his face. He even has the scar around his pinky that he got during a training accident, right down to the width. 

He stops in front of the same apartment building, and Naruto almost sighs in relief. 

“See you tomorrow.” He waves, and Naruto waves back, if a little more hesitantly. He turns and walks away, hands tucked in his pockets, and Naruto climbs the black winding steps leading to his apartment. 

Apparently, Naruto lives with Iruka. Last night, that had made for a rather startling surprise. Iruka was in the kitchen setting the cutting board under the faucet and brushing the rest of his dinner into plastic containers or into the garbage. His apartment is much cleaner than it ever was back in his own home, and the fridge is stocked with food that _isn’t_ expired, which is both a welcome change of pace and a pleasant surprise. One thing hasn’t changed, though: the picture frame on his dresser. Sasuke, smiling as Kakashi plants a hand on his head, Naruto scowling petulantly at the camera while Sakura poses. He traces his thumb over the glass, following the downward curve of his cheek. 

Iruka navigates the space like he’s lived in it his entire life, which is… definitely strange, but not unwelcome by any stretch. Naruto… enjoys having someone with him. 

Then, of course, comes the movement at the window that is most definitely not the curtains.

Naruto leaps after it on instinct, hurling himself out the open window and towards the shape. As it gets farther away, Naruto narrows his eyes and pursues, reinforcing his movements with chakra. 

“ _You’re not getting away this time, bastard_!”

The figure is the person who did this to him, Naruto is sure of it. 

“Come back here and fight me, you coward!” He reaches out, grasping for the edge of his shirt, before he slides out of existence.

Naruto has to rear back to stop his momentum so he doesn’t crash into the wall, and takes a minute to catch his breath.

Already off to a good start.

Naruto spends more time than he considers strictly necessary prowling the streets for any sign of the fucker who trapped him here, something uncomfortable in the pit of his stomach. He doesn’t want to admit it, but… before he had shown up, Naruto had forgotten altogether that he was supposed to want to get out. It was just… nice, is all. To have someone to wake up to and to have only smiles from the villagers to greet him instead of sneers. On the way he spots Sakura, her hair lifted off her shoulders, reclining in her seat next to Ino, chatting happily. And… Kakashi? He’s talking with Guy and the rest of his jounin friends in the cafe.

They’re all… happy.

Naruto stares at them a moment longer, transfixed, before a voice catches his attention.

“Naruto!” Sasuke saunters up next to him. “You should close your mouth, you’re gonna catch flies.”

Naruto hadn't been aware that he was doing that, he finds with no small amount of embarrassment. His mouth snaps shut, and they start walking. Naruto keeps a wary eye out for the man, but the edge of adrenaline fades almost entirely, their steady pace lulling him into relaxation. Sasuke’s shoulder bumps against his. He lets it. He’ll probably see him again, he reasons, and he’ll probably get his opportunity to go home then. There’s no harm in sticking around a little longer.

Sasuke navigates the streets, completely at ease with himself and the others. There’s an easy ambling to his steps, self assured and comfortable. Sasuke was never comfortable with crowds, Naruto thinks, and ducks his lower face into his collar. Sasuke hated crowds with a burning passion. He always stepped closer to Naruto, though he was sure that Sasuke didn’t consciously know he was doing it or else he would’ve stopped, when it got crowded. Probably because the Uchiha compound is so very big and so very empty. 

They don’t stop walking until they reach a clearing filled with tall, swaying grass. Naruto didn’t even think to ask where they were going.

Sasuke flings himself back down against the grass. Naruto hovers over him for a second, uncertain. Sasuke raises his eyebrows. “Waiting for an invitation?”

“No!” He says hotly, and lays down next to him. His profile, bathed in honeyed sunlight, he looks still, like something out of a painting, hair so impossibly dark that he doesn’t think any artistic medium could ever capture the levity of it. He wants to reach out and touch it. Wants to reach for the necklace around his throat. 

It’s a little too quiet.

“Is Sakura dating Ino?”

Sasuke laughs, startled. “Just figuring that out now?”

“I - you-” Naruto sputters. “But wasn’t she… you know?” He gestures at him. 

“She figured it out while you were gone.” He flips onto his stomach, holding himself up on his forearms. “You never did tell me about that. What did you learn?”

Naruto lights up, and spins tales of Jiraiya’s toad summons and the work he had to put into getting them, and how Jiraiya had helped him develop the Rasengan, how he had learned to make and keep fires going and fish. He shows him one of the smaller ones, and then, Sasuke proposes they spar, relying only on taijutsu. Naruto grins, rearing up for the challenge. 

He fights just like Naruto remembers, everything he's used to. It ends with Sasuke pinned, but then he smiles in a way that gives Naruto shivers and flips him right back over. 

“I win.” He says, and Naruto is frozen for a split second, paralyzed, staring up at his face. Then, Sasuke rolls off him. “You got a lot better.” Sasuke grins. “Not good enough to beat me, though.”

“I pinned you first!” Naruto declares.

He laughs. “I didn’t say the fight was over.” 

Naruto huffs, and then a smile settles over his face. The ache doesn’t feel so heavy.

Once things have settled down Naruto shows him how to weave flower crowns out of dandelions.

“Did you learn to make these during training too?” 

Naruto rolls his eyes. He definitely resorted to pulling grass a lot of the time during training when Jiraiya was busy writing or he got bored, and while he had taught himself several new ways of tying knots and twisting stems together, he hadn't learned it there. “No. Sakura taught me, after you-”

 _Deserted_ hangs on the tip of his tongue. Deserted. Because Sasuke had left the village three years ago and Naruto _needs to find him_ , feels his absence like a prominent ache in his lower ribs. 

Right. How could he have forgotten?

“Naruto?” Sasuke asks.

“Ah, nevermind.” He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, and then guides him through the motions. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto thinks he sees movement, like the edge of cloth catching in the wind, silvery and bright. 

“Naruto? What are you looking at?”

He glances again at the forest, and sees nothing. 

That night, he returns to a home that has never seemed so bright or lively and full, full of the things he has never had and has always wanted. There’s dinner sitting in the fridge, and he’s never known his parents, but he imagines it must feel something like this. The walls are lined with pictures - of them, of Naruto on the day he graduated the academy, of team seven, him grinning at the camera as he slings his arm around Sasuke’s shoulders. There are dates and reminders in Iruka’s handwriting scribbled onto the calendar. Everyone seems happy here, don’t they? Sasuke is here and home with him, happy and safe, and wonders for a moment if he _can’t_ stay. 

The next morning, Naruto continues his search for the mystery man. He wanders around the city twice before he concedes that the guy is nowhere to be found, and gives up, sulking down to the Uchiha compound in search of Sasuke. The compound is… much nicer than he remembers it being, mostly because there are still living people occupying it. The gardens are nice and tidy. The stone is uncracked, the paint bright and a far cry from the sad, faded ghost of it he’d become accustomed to seeing. He knocks on Sasuke’s door, and Itachi answers, which is similarly jarring, and glares murderously at him. Naruto kind of wants to sink into the ground and die. 

“Itachi, stop bullying him,” The one from before, Shisui, very clearly hungover, slings an arm around Itachi’s shoulders. “Sasuke’s at the river.” He winks, which does not make Itachi any happier, and then the door swings shut.

Well, then.

True to Shisui’s word, Sasuke is wading through the narrow stretch of river when he gets there. The earth is soft and wet, springing with cattails and bulrushes, glimmering with dew and evidence of last night’s rain shower. Little footprints lead to the water, one pair, older, small like a child’s, another like a cat’s. There are a lot of wild cats here, Naruto remembers, and along with that comes the memory of trying to pet them and getting nothing but scratched palms in return. Sasuke, with a heavy sigh, had shown him how to pet them.

The current is particularly fast today. Naruto would know. Before Sasuke disappeared, they had a game they used to play, when Sasuke wasn’t up to talking. They’d toss sticks or colorful leaves or whatever else they could find in the water and go to the bridge to see which came out first. He remembers the first time he went charging into the empty Uchiha compound, how all the fire had left his lungs when he saw the lines of empty houses and how small Sasuke looked in comparison, hunched over the river bend, folded into the cattails, silent and idling, a stillness born from trauma folded into the shape of a person. How the streets were the feeding grounds for wild cats and birds and not people. How every lock he could see had been cracked, like it had been split by a sword, every once well kept garden overgrown with weeds. How it felt like all the air had been knocked from his lungs. 

The current pulls around his calves, his pants folded up to his knees. He perches himself on a rock, cupping something gently between his hands.

“What’s that?” 

“Salamander.” He answers. Naruto peels off his socks and shoes, rolls up his pant legs, and wades into the water after him. When Sasuke passes it to him, his hands are cold from the water, but everything feels so very real and not like a hallucination at all. 

The salamander sitting demurely on his palms is small, probably a baby, orange and black. It reminds him a little of his toads.

“I saw your brother this morning. He glared at me pretty intensely.”

Sasuke hums. “I think he likes you.”

Naruto blanches. “ _Why_?”

“He made the last one cry.”

Naruto bursts into peals of laughter as he sets the salamander back into the water, watching it attach to the river bed and burrow into the mud. He looks back at Sasuke, silhouette burning with gray morning light, watching him expectantly, and lunges forward, wrapping his arms around him, and the both of them go falling back into the mud. Sasuke reciprocates almost immediately, hands tight at his back as they go toppling back into the riverbed, and Naruto buries his head in his shoulder. Sasuke shakes with laughter beneath him, and he feels the movement of his ribs, his lungs, with every breath. 

He pulls back, then, planting his hands on the ground for stability. There’s a riverweed caught around his ankle. Sasuke’s hair has mud in it now, and there’s a leaf caught in it just behind his ear that Naruto wants to pull away, and he’s looking up at him through dark, thick, wet eyelashes. 

He could be happy like this, he thinks.

“Naruto,” Sasuke grins sharply. “How forward of you.”

Naruto makes an undignified squawking noise, burying his nose back in his shoulder so that he can’t see the rising flush riding high on his cheeks, because that would be mortifying and Sasuke has seen him in enough compromising situations as it is. 

“You’re the worst,” He groans. 

Sasuke laughs, and Naruto can hear the echo of his heartbeat pressed to the shell of his ear. His fingers find his hair. Naruto tightens his grip at the base of his spine, and closes his eyes.

They wade into the deeper parts of the river later, because Sasuke bitched about the mud in his hair until Naruto relented because technically it is his fault, and he can admit that the cold water is a welcome reprieve from the merciless, hot glare of the sun. Sasuke is kicking water idly at him from the riverbank, a coy slant to his smile. 

Downriver, a pack of Uchiha kids are throwing around a ball, their shrieks of laughter echoing all the way down to the cliffs. 

Naruto teaches Sasuke the game for the second time.

“It’s for when you don’t want to talk,” He explains, and thinks about the all the times he sat at this very river bank and watched the leaves, snagged by the currents, be pummeled beneath the swirling water, carried to the edge of the waterfall and buried underneath the force of the water. He felt a lot like those leaves, sometimes. 

Sasuke watches, the silver film of understanding shining in his eyes.

He could be happy here, he realizes. Where everything is a little backwards and yet every bit the same. Where he has Sakura and Kakashi and Iruka and Tsunade, where the village is whole and he’s home and there’s Sasuke, happy and whole in ways that Naruto knows that his Sasuke can never truly be. He could have everything he wants and never regret it, and he knows that if he stays he _wouldn’t_. 

He thinks of every memory he has: sitting with his legs in the water as Sasuke talks, very quietly, about the Naka shrine upstream, as Naruto slips over a mossy rock and Sasuke steadies him, how they throw sticks and leaves into the water in what is less a competition, and more a silent reassurement of understanding. 

The face staring back at him is Sasuke. The person sitting on the bank is Sasuke. But it isn’t the Sasuke that he loves. He could be, maybe. If Naruto stayed, he could have everything he’s ever wanted. 

But Naruto has a decision to make.

He doesn’t say it, but he thinks Sasuke gets it anyway. He folds his arms around him again, though, just in case he never gets the chance to do it again. 

“Going so soon?” He asks into his hair. 

Naruto tightens his grip and wanders if this is what his Sasuke feels like in his arms, too. His breath, steady and even, heartbeat strong and stable where his is heavy and fast and painful, tickles his face. 

If he wants it badly enough will it become reality?

“Yeah,” He breathes, and digs his chin into his shoulder. “I’ve… got somewhere to be.”

By the river bank, spider lilies bloom.

“I know you’re there, bastard!” He shouts at the top of his lungs, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in search of his mysterious attacker. “Just come out and fight me already!” He’s growing impatient of this game of cat and mouse. The tiles slip beneath his feet, and before him, he materializes again in a flourish of silver fabric, glistening in the open sunlight like dew. 

“You!” Naruto snaps, teeth gnashing angrily. “You bring me home right now!”

“You want to go back?” The man seems genuinely surprised. Naruto wants to punch him. Naruto tries to punch him, but he slides easily out of his range and regards him coolly, despondent. “For what reason?”

“The hell you mean?” Naruto takes another swing at him, which is similarly evaded. 

“This world is perfect.” He supplies. “Everything you could want, yes? I saw your desires. This has all of them.”

“Desires?” 

“Yes. The many teams. Your teachers and friends. The Uchiha boy.”

Naruto stiffens. “You looked through my _memories_?”

“Yes. That is how you came to be in this place, specifically. I made it based upon your wishes.”

“I - you- just put me back! I can’t stay here!”

“Why not?” He stays ethereally still, like he truly can’t comprehend it.

“Because,” He yells hotly. “I have promises to keep! My world needs me.” His breath catches for the slightest moment. “I need to help _my_ Sasuke.”

“I suppose this world cannot be perfect.” He says, in a tone that might be mistaken for agreement. “It is conjured from your own mind, after all, and many facts become distorted, when memory is too shallow. Some gaps cannot be stitched over. I understand.”

Naruto pauses. “You’re… letting me go?”

“I am.”

“... why?”

“My mission was to obtain the scroll, not to kill you nor to keep you here. This kekkei genkai is good for ensnaring people, but it is not designed to harm. The chakra drain is useless. If you want to leave, it has already failed. You are free to leave whenever you please.”

“I - do you mean you can’t get me out?”

“You are the only one that can do that,” He tells him succinctly, and disappears again.

Naruto sits, cross legged, on the sloping tiles, crossing his arms. 

_I want to go home_ , he thinks, even if it stings a little, looking out at this world of things that could have been. _I want to see them again. I want to see the real them. So please, just bring me home._

The world unravels beneath the tips of his fingers. For a moment his heart is caught in his throat, he is tossed between two dimensions, everything is folding and coming undone and he is torn atom from atom only to be put back together, and he slips from the grasp of consciousness.

Naruto wakes to the sterile smell of a hospital, to covers bunched at his waist and tucked into his sides, and for a moment it feels a little like the embrace, like his arms locked around Sasuke, as both a promise and a reminder, and he opens his eyes to sunlight streaming through his hospital window.

Sakura, dozing in the plastic chair beside him, snaps awake, the real Sakura, and all but flings herself forward to wrap her arms around his neck, and Naruto hugs her just as tightly, a strangled sort of laugh in his throat. He has people he loves here, too. That revelation is… grounding. The other world is just based on truths from this one, after all. Just… embellished. 

“What happened?” She asks, and he isn’t sure what to tell her. Instead, he ducks his head into her shoulder and reminds himself of what’s real. 

Kakashi visits later, to tell him that the mission was a failure but everyone is safe, that Naruto was the only one affected by that particular kekkei genkai. The stressed line of his shoulders falls, and he plants a hand on Naruto’s shoulder. 

He’s been asleep for three days since they brought him back from the forest. 

He flings the papery covers off him, once they’ve made sure he’s healthy, once he’s been questioned on his experience. He doesn’t tell them about Sasuke and the river and he doesn’t talk about the ghost of the Uchiha compound at the back of his mind, the spiderweb fragments beneath his skin of memory, connecting him by threads.

Outside, there are people waiting for him, too. 

_I’m gonna save you, Sasuke,_ he promises, like a shared secret. 

Konoha opens its doors, and he comes home.

**Author's Note:**

> Naruto's got it bad. 
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment!


End file.
